Data processing system and method for pacing information transfers in a

Abstract

A data processing system and a method implement a unique push, or streaming, model for communicating time sensitive encoded data, such as video and audio data, in a communication network. A pacing mechanism is implemented in the data processing system to allow a client to pace a streaming server in a stable way such that a fill level of a client buffer will oscillate around a single threshold value. A simple protocol is implemented to protect pacing primitives, allow recovery for pacing primitives, and to keep a client and a server synchronized during the pacing operation. To implement the pacing mechanism, the streaming server transmits data at a slightly faster rate than it was encoded. Subsequently, a decoder circuit at the client, or receiver, uses the transmitted data at the encoded rate. Thus, the utilization of buffers in the client will gradually increase. When the utilization of buffers reaches a threshold level, the client provides a pacing message to the server. When the pacing message is received, the server withholds sending data for a period of time sufficient to drop the client buffer utilization to a level below a threshold level.